


let there be someone

by tomorrowisforeverallours



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Meetings, M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Souyo Week 2019
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 12:25:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18992626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomorrowisforeverallours/pseuds/tomorrowisforeverallours
Summary: A collection of works for SouYo Week 2019. Might be a day or two behind, but they will all be written!Day One: SoulmatesorMusic: Like A Dream Come TrueDay Two: Confession orPartners: Slip of the TongueDay Three:Illness/Injuryor Holding Hands: Dying Light





	1. Like A Dream Come True

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited to be a part of this week's content creation! Love these two dorks.

Yosuke's been dreaming of silver hair since before he can remember.

The dream is always the same: out of a fog-shrouded world comes a figure, about Yosuke's age, always with a shaggy bowl cut of silver hair and a small, enigmatic smile. He never gets to make out details, but the smile sticks with him, appearing in Yosuke's midday daydreams and causing him to flush brilliantly and vehemently distract himself.

When he is old enough to realize there is a pattern, he asks his mother about the "weird boy" in his dreams. Mrs. Hanamura's face splits with a grin and she bundles Yosuke into her arms in delight.

"Yosuke-chan, that's your soulmate."

Nobody is quite sure how to explain the phenomenon - scientists have been doing brain testing on soulmate pairs for decades and yet, answers remain elusive as to _how_ the image of one's soulmate appears in a dream. What they do know is this: the dream will never change, but the vision of your soulmate will reflect their current appearance, and the setting of the dream reflects a location that will be important in your relationship. People without soulmates have empty dreams.

Young Yosuke isn't quite sure what to make of this news. His soulmate is a boy? It's certainly not unheard of - there's no changing who your soulmate is, so there's no stigma around same-gender pairs - but Yosuke still finds the idea strange. He doesn't get along with the boys in his class. Oh, he's liked well enough, but he'd rather listen to music than play sports, and his reputation as class clown doesn't lend itself well to close friendships.

But his soulmate _has_ to like him, right? If Yosuke can just survive until he meets him, then he'll have a guaranteed friend.

It is that thought that propels him through junior high and his first year of high school. He never sees that flash of silver hair that haunts him, though, and his hopes fall more when his father is transferred to the irrelevant town of Inaba. How is he going to meet his soulmate in a shitty place like this? He meets Chie and Yukiko, who have known they were soulmates since elementary school, and it feels like the universe is taunting him. He saves up for a motorcycle to go to Okina every weekend, just to wander around and people-watch in the hopes of spying that familiar sparkle.

At some point, though, it hurts less if he stops looking.

* * *

It's raining and his bike chain is off and Yosuke is already late for the first day of his second year.

When he finally gets the chain back on, he makes the ill-advised decision to ride and simultaneously hold his umbrella; he doesn't want to get to school soaked, after all. It goes well, sort of, until he coasts down a hill and can't get a good grip on his brakes and ends up wiping out, missing a lamppost by mere centimeters.

"Ow, fuck..."

Groaning, Yosuke curls into a ball, ignoring the water seeping into his uniform. Maybe he would be better off just going home for the day. Give up and try again tomorrow.

Eventually he pushes himself to a seated position, and then he sees him.

There's a boy standing there watching him - Yasogami uniform pressed and perfect and completely dry - mouth open in uninhibited shock - silver hair curling gently around his ears.

Yosuke feels like he's been struck by lightning. He gapes at the boy, at his - at his _soulmate_ , trembling from the rain and the cold and the disbelief, because there's no way this is really happening. He must still be dreaming. Why has the setting changed? Where is the fog?

"Hey, are you alright?" The boy hurries towards him, crouching in front of Yosuke and holding his umbrella out to cover them both. His eyes are silver, too, and that's the most ridiculous part.

Yosuke laughs, soft and incredulous. "Uh, I don't know. Is this actually happening?"

His soulmate blinks and then smiles, too, slow and shy and it's the most beautiful fucking thing Yosuke's ever seen, and his heart fills with joy. Or he might be having an aneurysm. "Yeah, it's really happening."

"Bet you didn't expect to have a clumsy-ass soulmate like me," jokes Yosuke. "I'm probably making a terrible impression."

"Oh, no," says his soulmate, and Yosuke's self-deprecating grin fades. "It's a great first impression. I'm Narukami Yu."

"Uh, Hanamura. Hanamura Yosuke."

"It's really nice to meet you, Yosuke," says Yu, reaching out a hand and pulling an unhelpful Yosuke to his feet. His soulmate's hand is freezing but that's alright. Yosuke radiates enough warmth for the both of them.

He stares down at their linked hands and grins. All of that waiting had never prepared him for this - for the feeling of another palm pressed against his, for silver eyes and a nervous smile and the feeling that everything is finally right in the world.


	2. Slip of the Tongue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Two: Confession or ~~Partners~~

After four and a half years of being Yosuke Hanamura's best friend, Souji thinks he's gotten pretty good at hiding his massive, unrequited love for his partner.

So what if the entire Investigation Team knows, and his other friends, and his uncle and Nanako? (His cousin was actually the first to figure it out.) _Yosuke_ has no clue, and that's really what matters. If Yosuke doesn't know, then Souji can continue to enjoy his company while secretly pining.

The rational part of his brain knows it would be best to put some distance between them and try to move on, but just the thought of it stings like a thorn, and Souji never manages to commit to the idea. Sharing an apartment doesn't help at all. They've lived together for two years now, and Yosuke shows no awareness of Souji's raging crush on him; his best friend can be surprisingly oblivious sometimes.

It means he grows a little _too_ lax in his vigilant attempts to keep things entirely platonic. And he slips up.

It is a Thursday evening, and Souji is spending it trying to clean the residue of _something_ off the bottom of the stove. It is not his ideal night, to say the least.

"Yosuke, what even is this?"

"Man, hell if I know," his roommate quips, slouching against the kitchen counter with a grin. "The leftovers I got from Rise's party."

"You mean the curry?"

"Is that what it was? I honestly couldn't tell."

"Were you going to eat it without knowing what it was?" Souji retreats momentarily from the stove to shoot an unimpressed look at his best friend. Yosuke just shrugs. He hasn't changed much since high school, save for coming into his height. The gangly limbs that had cursed him with clumsiness now give him a lithe stature that Souji has to try very hard to ignore from his vantage point on the floor.

Yosuke stabs a finger in his direction. "Hey, you're one to talk, Mister Science-Project Eater! You're not allowed to judge me."

"...touché."

The brunette laughs again as Souji ducks his head back inside the stove, trying to hide his embarrassed blush. "Aww, it's okay, dude. You're a weirdo but I love you."

"I'm in love with you, too," responds Souji automatically.

Five seconds of calm silence pass, in which Souji scrubs at a particularly stubborn bit of burnt curry, before something strikes him as odd and he reviews his words. Panic seizes his chest and he stammers something incomprehensible, jerking out of the stove and clipping his head as he goes. "Ow - uh - ignore that, I didn't - "

"Dude, calm down," Yosuke says, and the sheer _fondness_ in the words makes Souji freeze up. He crouches down, brushing his fingers through Souji's hair where he must have gotten soot in it, and gives Souji one of those smiles that lights up the entire world, though it does little to alleviate his anxiety. "I know."

"You... know?"

Souji gapes at him, the words incomprehensible to his brain. Yosuke chuckles. "Yeah, I've known for a while, Souji."

"You know... that I... what?"

He's aware that he sounds like a broken record, but the words refuse to make sense to Souji. He's been keeping his feelings so carefully secret for so long that there's no way Yosuke just _knows_. When had he slipped? And what does this mean for their friendship? He's irrationally terrified despite knowing that Yosuke dealt with his homophobic beliefs a long time ago. What does this mean for them?

He meets his best friend's eyes, every muscle tense with apprehension. Dancing in them is a sort of affectionate mirth that Yosuke always has when he thinks Souji is being an idiot, and he speaks deliberately slow. "I know that you're in love with me, partner."

"How... did you find out?"

"Well, Nanako told me, actually," Yosuke says, rubbing the back of his neck. "But once she pointed out how differently you treat me, it wasn't hard to figure out. I was just waiting to see how long it took you to figure it out."

"Figure out what?" asks Souji, tilting his head. His heartbeat is still erratic but he breathes deeply, trying not to panic for the time being.

Yosuke grins, and oh, he's suddenly closer than he was before. Much closer. "That I'm in love with you too, idiot."

His partner presses their lips together and Souji is transported four years into the past, to the moment Izanagi had first manifested in a crackle of lightning and promised him all the power in the world if he was only willing to reach out and grasp it. He gasps instinctively at the spark between them, at Yosuke's hand on his waist and the confident way he slips his tongue into Souji's mouth to coax his own into play.

He's breathless by the time Yosuke pulls away, and manages to ask, "Where did you learn to kiss like that?"

Yosuke flashes his canines in a mischievous smile. "Kissed a lot of girls while I was waiting for you to figure your shit out, partner."

Something snaps within Souji, a quick-release like summoning a Persona, with the hot-flash of possessiveness that used to always seize him when a Shadow would dare to swing at Yosuke. Maybe later he'll feel guilty for comparing girls to supernatural monsters. Right now, though, he laces his fingers behind Yosuke's head and pushes him onto his back on the kitchen floor, grinning at his surprised expression. "Well, I've figured it out now."

And no one ate dinner that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry i really couldn't help but end it like that


	3. Dying Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Three: ~~Illness/Injury~~ or Holding Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vague apocalypse AU. I was originally going to do both, but I wasn't quite in the mood to hurt anyone today.

It feels like they've been walking for decades. Maybe they have; time loses its meaning in an apocalypse. Every clock they see is stopped at a different instance, and Yosuke's watch died a long time ago. Now they judge the passing of time by more instinctual standards: the position of the sun, the growl of their stomachs telling them it is time to rest.

In front of him, Seta picks his way over the rubble of a collapsed storefront, leading them to god-knows-where. Their agreed direction is 'north,' but any more specific than that will have to wait until they get there.

His partner is the strong and silent type. That's probably for the best in the situation they've found themselves - hurts less when they die if you don't get attached - but Yosuke is curious nonetheless. They'd teamed up in a skirmish with some delinquents known as the Shadows, and since they'd made a mutual enemy, decided it might be safer to travel together from then on.

The problem is that Yosuke finds himself attached.

First of all, Seta is entirely too pretty for being an apocalypse survivor. His silver hair gleams in the uninhibited sunlight (rest in peace, ozone layer), and his features are delicate in an aristocratic way without being too girlish. And his fighting? Hoo boy.

But it's more than that. Seta is consistently reliable. He may keep his distance from Yosuke, but he's always there with a helping hand and a muted smile. He steps in front of Yosuke when they encounter enemies, is always the first to keep watch even when he's clearly exhausted, and he even laughs at Yosuke's stupid jokes. In the before-world, Yosuke would have a raging crush on him.

As it is, he's a little smitten. But there's no room for romance in the apocalypse, or so he thinks.

The sun is beginning to cast its dying light over the city, just as they reach its outskirts. In the green overgrowth, a scarlet _torii_ signals a path leading to a shrine.

Yosuke glances at Seta, whose silver eyes are already pinned to him. Their silent conversation lasts for mere seconds before they begin to climb the stairs in tandem. The area seems completely abandoned, but he keeps his handgun clutched loosely in his hand, just in case.

The shrine is small and silent. A small playground, metal rusting and squeaking in the wind, stands to their left, no children left to play on it. Yosuke frowns, a somber feeling settling deep in his bones.

Seta wanders towards the shrine proper, looking back to Yosuke. "All seems quiet," he says. "We should stay here tonight."

"Fine by me," Yosuke says despite himself. "I'll hunt."

"Don't, Hanamura."

"Huh?"

Seta pulls a face; it's a strange expression on his typically-apathetic face. "It... seems wrong to kill something here. Don't you think?"

Yosuke snorts. "If there was a _kami_ here, it's definitely abandoned us now. But alright."

They sit on the stairs of the shrine and eat dried jerky and lukewarm canned fruit for dinner. The sunset falls exactly through the _torii_ , lighting the world on fire in swaths of orange and gold. A gentle breeze swirls the dead leaves on the stone path into tornadoes. Yosuke glances at Seta, whose expression is calm as he picks at his food. "Hey. What are you going to do when we get... 'north'?"

Seta hums thoughtfully. "I don't know. I thought I would look for my family, but they're probably gone now."

"Me too." The question is on the tip of his tongue; Yosuke swallows and forces it out. "If you're not dead set on flying solo, maybe we could... stick together?"

Those molten silver eyes turn to him and Yosuke ducks his head sheepishly, a schoolgirl flush coming to his cheeks. What a ridiculous question to ask. Of course Seta wouldn't want to drag his ass around Tōhoku.

"I'd like that."

"Wait, really?" Yosuke gapes, even more taken aback by the tentative smile that curves up the edges of Seta's lips. His heart does a little jump in his chest that has nothing to do with gunfire. "You wanna?"

"Yeah. Why not? We make a good team."

"Cool. Great. Yeah, cool," Yosuke stammers, grinning, and without thinking he reaches over to grab Seta's hand. His skin is cool and calloused and even when he realizes his mistake, he can't quite bring himself to let go, especially because Seta is looking at him so softly. "Partners, huh?"

"Partners sounds good," says Seta. "And if we're going to be partners... my name is Souji." 

_Oh._ Yosuke blinks, internalizing the new information. Souji Seta fits him perfectly. "I'm Yosuke."

"Yosuke." Seta smiles. "I like it."

He can't think of anything to say to that, so he squeezes Souji's hand and they stare into the darkening sky, both looking forward to the next day now more than ever.


End file.
